US Senate to scrap Guantanamo closure funds! MSNBC says it's Harry Reid...

[KoKo]

(According to chatting head on MSNBC...Harry's in trouble back at home and doesn't want any terrorists released in America...so they can't close GITMO) :banghead:

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US Senate to scrap Guantanamo closure funds

AFP
AFP American Edition

May 19, 2009

The US Senate will move Tuesday to strip President Barack Obama's request for funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for alleged terrorists from an emergency spending bill, a top lawmaker said.

"The money was sought prematurely," because Obama does not yet have a plan for what to do with the detainees there, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters.

Feinstein said she had discussed the matter with Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and that "there will be an amendment which will say 'no funding until there is a plan.'"

Obama had asked for 80 million dollars to shutter the notorious facility as part of a massive supplemental to pay for fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through October 1, as well as aid Pakistan.

The House of Representatives did not include the money in its 96.7 billion dollar version of the bill, but the Senate had included in its 93.1 billion dollar version with some restrictions.

But Obama's request had run into stiff opposition from Republicans and Democratic unease about the potential transfer or release of detainees -- even though cleared of terrorism charges -- onto US soil.

"I think the part that is 'no funding until there is a plan' is fine. I think this money was premature," said Feinstein.

But "most Americans don't know that we already have major terrorists and serial killers housed in 'supermax' federal prisons from which no one has ever escaped and is not in anyone's community," she told reporters.


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/05/us_senate_to_scrap_guantanamo_closure_funds.php?ref=fpc